Lottie's Lounge

Our favorite hangout, Geraldine's, was closed, so Carrie and I decided to take our her parents and take a chance on Lotties Lounge.  The food itself was excellent - I  had the Italian Sausage grinder, Carrie had Ham, Swiss and Arugula, and while I forget what her parents had, no one had anything but good things to say about their sandwiches, They also serve an excellent chili soup and clam chowder as well. Carrie's clam chowder came out cold, though, and we had to send it back.

The reason I marked them down from four stars was the service. The woman tending bar had her back turned to us for much of our visit while she was busy futzing about with her bar tabs. It took her five minutes to get around to giving us our menus, and another ten to get around to giving us our check (plus five to get her attention so that she could get my wife's clam chowder warmed up).  The music was way too loud as well. As good as the food is, I won't be going back,

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All good things...

Now that the kids are here in the world, I am stepping away a bit from the me-centric Caffeine Nation and devoting more time to C.C and the Beans, a more family-centered blog that is devoted to Gabe, Ollie, Carrie and I - and even Axia! I'm hoping that you'll see some content from Carrie there, as well. 


I decided to move away from Blogger for this one because, as much as I like Blogger, Wordpress is the better tool for blogging, I think. There are far more templates, and I have found one that fits the likes of both Carrie and I just fine. Plus, as much as I value comments, I really don't like anonymous commentary...


Here are all of the blogs  that I currently maintain:

• CC and the Beans - Family Stuff
• This Blog - runs, restaurant reviews, general musings
• The Caffeine-nation of Charlie - Java Programming stuff

You are more than welcome to follow one, two, or all three of my blogs! Of course, comments are always welcome!

Baby Pics!

I've started a new gallery just for the kids. Here is a sampling of the pics inside. 
Gabe:

From The Kids

From The Kids

And Ollie:

From The Kids

From The Kids

The Babies are here! The Babies are here!

Carrie Ann Anderson and Charles Anthony Burrell, III would like to announce with much happiness the birth of their two beautiful baby boys, Gabriel Anthony and Oliver Russell Burrell. Both were born on February 10th, 2010 at Swedish Hospital, First Hill, Seattle.

Gabriel was born at 5:25 am weighing 5 pounds, 3 ounces.
Oliver was born at 5:27 am weighing 4 pounds, 14 ounces

The boys will become grandsons to Russell and Beverly Anderson of Richfield, Utah, and Charles (II) and Carolyn Burrell of Frederick Maryland. They will also be proud nephews to Carter Burrell, Rodney Anderson and Carla Anderson. Lastly (but certainly not least), they will be great-grandsons to Dolores Burrell, Charles Burrell (I),Dorothy Skinner, Corene Anderson and Nea Ramsay. We look forward to having all of their family in their lives.

Almost 34

One day passes and we're closer to 34 weeks. At this point, we're thinking that each day that passes with the kids in the womb means perhaps 2-3 days that they won't have to spend in the NICU of they are born before 38 weeks. Of course, if they make it that far, then we might not have to worry about the NICU thing - and be able to take both of our beautiful boys home with us.

Yeah, that's us being greedy :)

Of course, Carrie is going through a lot of stress right now. Her blood pressure is yo-yo'ing like crazy, she has headaches, and the physical pressures of having two human beings in her can be too much to bear at some point. We both realize that, in seeing the benefits to her health, the decision to induce could be made and enacted sooner than later.

Still, we can hope. We both have faith that our sons will come out and be just fine in the end.

I stayed with Carrie again last night at the hospital. Before making my way home, I went on my longest run / walk ever. I'll not say how long this took me. On the other hand - maybe I will. 66.5 minutes really isn't too bad for this distance, seeing as how I actually ran up all the hills and walked four times after each of those sprints.

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This run took me from First Hill to Capitol Hill to Belltown (skirting along lower Queen Anne in the process) to Pioneer Square to Downtown Seattle to Cascade. I tripped once and ruined my running gloves catching myself. But I made it in the end :)

Goodbye, Downtown Cups

When I first started working at my Varolii, my daily commute took me past a wonderful coffee ship called Downtown Cups. I would walk past that establishment on my way to the Exchange Building and stop in just about every day. After about a couple of weeks of seeing my face, the owner (Michelle) and the baristas would memorize my poison of choice, and start working on it as I stepped into the doorway. Over the years, I developed a genuine rapport with Michelle and some of the baristas, and my visits became less about me just stopping in to get coffee, and more about just seeing what was up and how everyone was doing. When I moved across the sound from Kitsap County to Seattle’s Belltown area, I stopped in less often, since it was no longer directly on my way, but I still made it a point to stop by at least three or four times a month and see how everyone was doing.

Today, I stopped by to get a cuppa, and found the doors closed. After four –plus years of serving the downtown area and commuters, Downtown Cups is no more.

Very sad. DTC filled a pretty significant place in my workday life, and now will do so no more. I truly wish Michelle (the former owner) all the best in all of her future endeavors.

33 going on 34 (hopefully)

There was the possibility that Carrie would be induced today, but her blood pressure results have come back as being relatively unchanged, so (for now) we are focusing on a new goal: 34 weeks :) Neither one of us thinks that the pregnancy will last much past that point, even if it reaches that point.

We are so looking forward to seeing our two boys! We've had the names picked out for the two of them ever since before we found out what the genders were. Our place is (mostly) ready, and we are awaiting the arrival of our two beautiful baby boys!

Here's hoping for 33!

There was a scare n Friday morning concerning both the length of time between and duration / severity of Carrie’s contractions. Things had gotten to the point to where the doctors put her on the drug of last resort –Magnesium Sulfate. The side effects were tolerable for a little while, but after a few hours, she started to really notice her own wooziness and lightheadedness, and experienced some shortness of breath during the night.

Right now, we are thinking that it’s a matter of days, not weeks. We’re hoping to make it one more day to her 33 week mark; it would be really great if she could make it to 34 weeks. But that’s really out of our hands, at this point.

I’ve been staying at the hospital during the nights; poor Axia has had to pretty much fend for herself these days. I’m really grateful to our friends and neighbors for pitching in and helping us out.